Display device



Sept. 27, 1932. MOORE, 1,879,760

DISPLAY DEVICE Filed June 6. 1951 II \a A; ATTORNEY Patented Sept. 27, 1932 un ts!) STATES v. THOMAS FRED MOORE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.- I

DISPLAY DEVIC Application filed June 6, 1931. SerialNo. 542,516.

This invention relates to display devices, and aims to provide an improved device of simple and inexpensive construction for stretching and displaying afiexible poster or similar article, and which may readily be collapsed so as to be rolled'within the poster for transportation.

A. device according to the invention comprises a flexible poster, and a carrier, or support, for the poster, and means for connecting the poster to the carrier including stretching means for pulling one edge of the poster from a point beyond the edge to hold the poster stretched fiat.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawing, the carrier is in the form of an easel having two front legs formed of a piece of wire bent to an inverted V, and a strut or rear leg loosely pivotally connected near its top to the point of the v'. The flexible poster, provided with suitable top and bottom edge strips, 1s stretched fiat over the two front legs of the easel by connecting its upper edge strip to the top or upper part of the easel and connecting to its bottom edge strip elastic tensionmembars which extend upward from points on the front legs of the easel below the bottom of the poster. These tension elements, constituting the poster stretching means, are formed by coil springs sleeved on the lower portions of the front legs. With these coil springs connected at their upper ends to spaced points at the lower edge of the poster, not only is the poster stretched flat, but a desired degree of spread of the front legs of the easel is established when the device is in display position, and the entire device made more rigid.

A full understanding of the invention can best be given by a detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof, and such a description will now be given in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a rear elevational View ofthe complete device in display position;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail view showing in side elevation certain easel parts similarly .50 shown in Fi 2 and showin in vertical section certain posterparts seenin'side elevation in Fig.2; Y c Fig. 4 is an enlarged detail view, showing in rear elevation parts'similarly shown in F ig. 1,"with, however, all parts of the poster 7 except an upper eye thereof omitted. i

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 3,"illustrating in clearer detail the lowerp art ofthe poster, one of the front legs of the easel and 'one'of the coil springs; and

V Fig. 6 is a fragmentary rear view, also on an enlarged scale, showing apart of the poster and a lower eye thereon. V

' Referring to the drawing, the poster 10 comprises a sheet of flexiblematerial such as paper or cloth on one sideof which display matter is printed or otherwise displayed. Metal or other binding strips or "stiifeners 11 are doubled and clamped over the top and bottom edges of the poster to extend along said edges. Midway of the length of the upper strip 11 a small piece 12 of suitable sheet material, as atab of thin sheet brass, is b0und in against the rear side of the poster. Like i tabs aresimilarly secured between the lower 5 blndingstrip and the poster. Each of these three tabs is shaped and pierced'toprovide an eye 13. Y

The easel comprises two bent wire mem-' .bers' 14 and 15. The bent-wire member 1a is bent to V shape having a. short intermediate length 16 at the top when the V is'inverted to set u the easel. The member 'l5'is a' length o wire circularly bent near its upper end to provide aloop eye 17 The main lower length of this member forms airear leg, or strut, 15 for. the easel when the'two wire members areinterconnected as shown, by passing the V member 14 through'the loop eye 17. 'The wire member 15 above the eye 17 9 is extended upwardly for a short distance and then reversely bent, asillustrated, to provide an upstanding projection" 18 having a rounded "top below which extends a down bent length 18' ofthe wire. This lengthj18" is terminally shaped as shown "to I have a curvature 18 similar to that of the loop eye 17 "A two point rest is thus provided for the intermediate length 16 of the wire member 14E when the three easel legs are spreadand the gasel is stood upright on a supporting surace.

The legs 19 of the inverted V form the front legs of the easel. Sleeved on each leg 19 near its bottom end is a coiled tension spring 20. The lower ends of these springs are hooked in holes drilled through the legs 19, and the upper ends thereof are adaped to be hooked through the eyes 13 at the bottom of the poster; these springs thus providing means for stretching the poster-fiat against the front legs of the easel when the device is in dis play position. v j

The legs 19, the stretching members and the poster, all co-act to provide a stabilizing interlock for'the front or main structure of the device when the latter is in display position. The use of the device described is as follows: When the device is tobe transported, the poster is disconnected from the easel,

and the two legs 19 are collapsed against the prop or rear leg 15, and the poster may be rolled about the collapsed easel. vWhen the poster is to be displayed, the legs 19 and 15' are spread. The poster is hung on the projection 18 by its upper eye 13, and the free ends of the springs are connected to the lower eyes 13 on'the poster.

I When the invention is carried out as now preferred, not only are the front legs 19 of the easel both'integral parts of a single length of wire, as illustrated inthe drawing, but such wire may be comparatively light. This is quite practicable, in view of the manner in which the front'legs 19, the poster 10, and the springs 20 all co -act to give rigidity to the front or main structure of the easel when the device is in display position. Numerous changes may be made in the What is claimed is: 1. The combination with a flexible poster,

of a carrier for displaying the poster including means for connecting the upper edge of the poster to an upper part thereof, and having sleeved on each of its front legs a coiled tension spring connected at its lower end to the easel leg and adaptedto be connected at its upper end to the bottom of the poster.

, In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand. 7 THOMAS FRED MOORE.

specific device described without departing i i from the invention, Thus, for instance, assuming wire elements are employed to make the easel, the legs 19 may be separate lengths of wire, each at its top pivotally connected with the other and with the rear leg or prop 15. The interconnection between the top of the poster andthe top of the easel, and, if coil springs are employed as the stretching means, the arrangement and connection of such springs; to the poster and the front easel legs may be varied, and other stretching means may be used. I prefer, when the shape ofthe poster permits, to make each of the legs 19 and the prop 15 of a single unjointed piece rather than to make them each of two pieces hinged or otherwise jointed so as to fold to shorter length, but the invention as now broadly considered is obviously not to be limited to the use of such unj ointed legs and prop.

Thedevice may -'be used for the display of pictures, photographs, and printed matter V of all kinds, all of which are intended tobe included in the word poster in the claims following. r 

